DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Cross Reference to Related Applications
2. The present application is a division of U.S. Application No. 17/480,978, entitled ?UU DORMANCY AND SIDELINK TRANSMISSION GRANT, filed September 21, 2021, which claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/081,878 entitled ?UU DORMANCY AND SIDELINK TRANSMISSION GRANT filed September 22, 2020, both of which are assigned to the assignee and expressly incorporated by reference in their entireties.
Claims status
3. This office action is a response to an application filed on July 23, 2024 in which claims 1-19 are pending for examination.
Information Disclosure Statement
4. The Examiner has considered the reference(s) listed on the Information Disclosure Statements submitted on July 23, 2024, April 11, 2025 and April 24, 2026.
Drawings
5. The Examiner contends that the drawings submitted on July 23, 2024 are acceptable for examination proceedings.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
6. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
7. Claims 1-5, 8-16 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yi et al. (US 2022/0201716 A1; support for the cited paragraphs sporadically through the disclosures of provisional application number. 63/906,990 field on September 27, 2019), hereinafter “Yi” in view of LIU et al. (US 2023/0209551 A1), hereinafter “Liu”.
Regarding claim 1, Yi discloses an apparatus for wireless communication at a first user equipment (UE) (Figs. 1B, 15, 19), comprising: a transceiver; a memory; and one or more processors coupled with the transceiver and the memory (Fig. 15, example of a wireless device in communication with a base station), wherein the one or more processors and the memory are configured to:
receive a configuration (Fig. 19, paragraphs [0134], [0137], [0239]-[0240], configuration parameters comprising cell0and cell1) indicating a subset of Uu component carriers (CCs) (Fig. 19, paragraphs [0134], [0137], [0239]-[0240], aggregated carriers in carrier aggregation referred to as component carriers) of a plurality of Uu CCs from a network entity (Fig. 19, paragraphs [0137], [0239]-[0240], cell 1 for transmission of SL DCI);
receive a downlink control information (DCI) via the subset of Uu CCs (Fig. 19, paragraphs [0240], [0241], first sidelink DCI via cell1) from the network entity based on receiving the configuration (Fig. 19, paragraphs [0240], [0241], SS2 configured with a current active BWP of the second cell (BWP2) for SL DCIs since the time n); and
communicate on a subset of sidelink CCs of the plurality of sidelink CCs (Fig. 19, paragraphs [0239], [0241], SL DCI comprising one or more resource assignments of for sidelink BWP/carrier/cell for one or more sidelink transmissions) with a second UE based on the DCI (Fig. 19, paragraphs [0239], [0241], first PSSCH based on first SL DCI).
While Yi implicitly refers to “the DCI schedules sidelink transmissions for the first UE via a plurality of sidelink CCs” (Fig. 19, paragraphs [0240], [0241]), Liu from the same or similar field of endeavor explicitly discloses receive a downlink control information (DCI) via the subset of Uu CCs from the network entity based on receiving the configuration (paragraphs [0003], [0043], [0314], control signaling isa used to schedule plurality of target subjects (interpreted as SL carrier group, SL cell group, SL resource pool group or SL BWP group)), wherein the DCI schedules sidelink transmissions for the first UE via a plurality of sidelink CCs (paragraphs [0003], [0043], [0314], for example, a subcarrier spacing SCS of a Uu cell is 15 kHz, and the cell may schedule four SL component carriers (CC), where an SCS of a part of the SL CC is 15 kHz, and an SCS of a part of the SL CC is 60 kHz).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to provide “the DCI schedules sidelink transmissions for the first UE via a plurality of sidelink CCs” as taught by Liu, in the system of Yi, so that it would provide resource determining method relates to control signaling to schedule at sidelink SL carrier, an SL cell, an SL resource pool, or an SL bandwidth part BWP (Liu, paragraph [0002]).
Regarding claim 2, Yi discloses the one or more processors configured to receive the DCI in the subset of Uu CCs from the network entity are further configured to: perform a blind search procedure for the DCI in each Uu CC of the subset of Uu CCs; and identify the DCI in an Uu CC of the subset of CCs based on the blind search procedure (Figs. 14B, 19, paragraphs [0204], 0238], [0240], decoding one or more PDCCH candidates of the set of the PDCCH candidates according to the monitored DCI formats. Monitoring may comprise decoding a DCI content of one or more PDCCH candidates with possible (or configured) PDCCH locations, possible (or configured) PDCCH formats (e.g., number of CCEs, number of PDCCH candidates in common search spaces, and/or number of PDCCH candidates in the UE-specific search spaces) and possible (or configured) DCI formats; the decoding may be referred to as blind decoding).
Regarding claim 3, Yi discloses the DCI corresponds to a mode 1 message with resource allocation to the first UE for a sidelink transmission (Fig. 19, paragraphs [0236], [0239], configuration parameters comprising mode 1 sidelink operation).
Regarding claim 4, Yi discloses the one or more processors configured to receive the DCI in the subset of Uu CCs from the network entity are further configured to receive the DCI in the subset of Uu CCs with a resource allocation for a sidelink transmission between the first UE and the second UE (Fig. 19, paragraphs [0236], [0239], [0240], [0241], first sidelink DCI via cell1).
Regarding claim 5, Yi discloses the one or more processors configured to communicate on the subset of sidelink CCs with the second UE are further configured to transmit one or more sidelink control information (SCI) to the second UE (paragraph [0227], PSCCH used by first wireless device to send sidelink control information to second wireless device).
Regarding claim 8, Yi in view of Liu disclose the apparatus according to claim 5.
While Yi in view of Liu implicitly refer to “the one or more SCI correspond to a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) and a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH)”, Ji from the same or similar field of endeavor explicitly discloses the one or more SCI correspond to a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) and a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) (Fig. 3, paragraphs [0030], [0053], UE may allocate resources on each data carrier for carrying a PSCCH, and then transmit, through the PSCCH, scheduling information, for example, SCI in the scheduling information).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to provide “the one or more SCI correspond to a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) and a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH)” as taught by Ji, in the combined system of Yi and Liu, so that it would implement sidelink feedback transmission in the carrier aggregation scenario based on scheduling information, sidelink data on a data carrier and feedback data on a feedback carrier (Ji, paragraph [0005]).
Regarding claim 9, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 1 from the perspective of the network entity.
Regarding claim 10, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 3 from the perspective of the network entity.
Regarding claim 11, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 4 from the perspective of the network entity.
Regarding claim 12, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 13, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 2.
Regarding claim 14, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 3.
Regarding claim 15, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 4.
Regarding claim 16, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 5.
Regarding claim 19, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 8.
8. Claims 6, 7, 17 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yi et al. (US 2022/0201716 A1; support for the cited paragraphs sporadically through the disclosures of provisional application number. 63/906,990 field on September 27, 2019), hereinafter “Yi” in view of LIU et al. (US 2023/0209551 A1), hereinafter “Liu” in view of JI et al. (US 2022/0150908 A1), hereinafter “Ji”.
Regarding claim 6, Yi in view of Liu disclose the apparatus according to claim 5.
While Yi in view of Liu implicitly refer to “the one or more SCI include SCI1 and SCI2”, Ji from the same or similar field of endeavor explicitly discloses the one or more SCI include SCI1 and SCI2 (Fig. 3, paragraphs [0068], [0113], [0148], SCI1, SCI2, and SCI3 on CC1, CC2, and CC3 respectively, to schedule sidelink data blocks to be sent on CC1, CC2, and CC3).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to provide “the one or more SCI include SCI1 and SCI2” as taught by Ji, in the combined system of Yi and Liu, so that it would implement sidelink feedback transmission in the carrier aggregation scenario based on scheduling information, sidelink data on a data carrier and feedback data on a feedback carrier (Ji, paragraph [0005]).
Regarding claim 7, Yi discloses the SCI1 and SCI2 include resource information and transmission parameters about a sidelink transmission between the first UE and the second UE (paragraph [0227], control information may comprise, for example, time/frequency resource allocation information (RB size, a number of retransmissions, etc.), demodulation related information (DMRS, MCS, RV, etc.)).
Regarding claim 17, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 6.
Regarding claim 18, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 7.
Conclusion
9. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SITHU KO whose telephone number is 571-272-8647. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Friday 8:30am-5:00pmEST.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Edan Orgad can be reached on 571-272-7884. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SITHU KO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2414
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